Grafton Math Olympians Show Their Smarts

Submitted by the coaches of Grafton Public Schools' Math Olympians

“Lara starts at the bottom of a long staircase.  She climbs exactly 2/3 of the stairs.  Then, she goes back down exactly ½ of the way to the bottom.  From that spot, she climbs exactly 2/3 of the way to the top.  Finally, from there, she climbs 6 stairs to reach the top.  How many stairs are in the staircase?”

If you’re not sure, ask a Grafton Public Schools Math Olympian.  Math Olympiads is a math enrichment program which provides challenging, thought-provoking math problems. Thinking outside the box is embraced and sharing different strategies is encouraged.  Grafton students are among the nearly 150,000 students nationwide who participate in a series of monthly contests and weekly practice sessions.  This program is offered free of charge to our students.  This year’s Math Olympiads program had about fifty 4^th, 5^th and 6^th grade students from both North Street School and Millbury Street School.

On Wednesday, March 27, students were treated to a celebration with pizza, snacks, prizes and awards. Special recognition was given to Millbury Street School 5^th grader Ansh Patel, who received a perfect score in all 5 competitions. Other students were recognized for first, second, and third place.  4^th Grade student awards: Sofia Valverde (1^st), Melvin He , Julia Lin, and Srilasya Poruri (tied for 2^nd), and Aryan Mayor (3^rd).  5^th Grade student awards:  Ansh Patel (1^st), Arjun Hegde (2^nd), and Anish Patel (3^rd).  6^th Grade student awards:  Aryan Mangalik (1^st), Sophia Harper and Sahil Kale (tied for 2^nd), and Anshula Kale and Meghana Kaki (tied for 3^rd).  Special recognition was also given to 5^th graders Matthew Leclair and Emily Masera for scoring an overall 80 percent in all 5 competitions.

Congratulations to all of our 2012-2013 Math Olympians:

Anjali Adduri, Rishi Baronia, Cameron Cadman, James Dewar, Aneela Ehsan, David Fedor, Anvi Gampa, Anika Gampa, Yashvi Gupta, Rijul Gupta, Sophia Harper, Melvin He, Arjun Hegde, Meghana Kaki, Sahil Kale, Anshula Kale, Harneet Kaur, Janice Kim, Aria Kydd, Matthew Leclair, Julia Lin, Manisha Madhavan, Aryan Mangalik, Emily Masera, Aryan Mayor, Namratha Metra, Benjamin Nguyen, Meera Parthasarathy, Aksh Patel, Anish Patel, Ansh Patel, Esha Patel, Taylor Paulauskas, Amruta Peri, Neha Perumal, Srilasya Poruri, Vidya Ramalingam, Geetika Ravi, Kevin Roche, Anya Sood, Surya Suresh, Swetha Susarla, Rithika Uppalapati, Sofia Valverde, Tanay Venkata, Brianna Yuen and Adrianna Yuen.

The Math Olympians and their coaches, Mrs. Misa Hamdan and Mrs. Heather Masera, would like to thank all of the businesses who donated and supported the program throughout the year:  Bushel N Peck Deli, Ecotarium, Grafton Stop & Shop, Grafton Suburban Credit Union, Raytheon, the South Grafton PTO, WB Mason, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  A special thank you goes out to Grafton’s “hometown hero”, Lucky, who owns Pepperoni Express.  He generously donated pizza and gift certificates for our final celebration.

(By the way, the answer is 27!)